My family and I are going to be driving from San Luis Obispo to Redlands, CA (east of Los Angeles) for Thanksgiving. We have two small kids (1 yo and 3 yo), so even the normal 4 hour version of this drive is difficult. We need to leave on Wednesday and I am trying to figure out what time to leave SLO to avoid too much evening/night traffic when we get to Los Angeles. We plan to take the most direct route: 101S, 134, 210, and finally I-10.

Does anyone know what time the gridlock associated with the Wednesday before Thanksgiving might clear in LA?

It takes us about 3 hours to get from SLO to LA. We are basically trying to decide to leave at 6 PM, 7 PM, or 8 PM. Do you think the traffic will still be awful in LA at 9 PM, 10 PM, or 11 PM?

Thanks for any suggestions.

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1968 220D, w115, /8, OM615, Automatic transmission.
My 1987 300TD wagon was sold and my 2003 W210 E320 wagon was totaled (sheds tear).

Suggestion: avoid the Hell Ay megasprawl by cutting east first, then going southeast to San Bernardino via Palmdale. See map. Yeah, you'll have about 100 miles of two-laner (166), but most parts of that road are good for 60+ mph.

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=san+luis+obispo&daddr=34.8655312,-119.231484+to:34.5581141,-118.0771281+to:redlands+ca&hl=en&ll=34.912962,-120.355225&spn=1.01351,1.766052&sll=34.343436,-118.105774&sspn=1.020491,1.766052&geocode=FUBfGgIdYOHO-Cknwmx7vubsgDFGD-_OwpACvA%3BFXsBFAIdBKzk-CnPrRmsNIbpgDFYGd8jpzflLQ%3BFaJQDwIdOEn2-CkdVGH1d_jCgDE6Z-cy6YOkcA%3BFZGlBwIdtu8D-SlDsZZBxlPbgDFnuts7yunZdQ&t=h&mra=dvme&mrsp=2&sz=9&via=1,2&z=9

Yup --antalope--- er bakersfield--victorville. wouldn't even consider thru LA

I concur with the above.

There is no good time to take the 101 or the 5 freeways through L.A. It will be unbelievably bad.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

I'd probably still take 166 a bit to the south of SLO -- the route through Bakersfield is ~30-35 miles longer.

The only time traffic will be good in LA is after it is wiped out in a nuclear war. You shouldn't notice any difference in overall road quality, either.

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

I've been reliably informed that from space the traffic patterns look like a big burnt turkey.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

You guys don't know what you are talking about and are giving horrible advice. If you like to avoid Los Angeles all together, from the 101 S take the CA-23N, this becomes the 118 and leads you to the I-210 E. This will be faster than the route you had planned.

I was the other day in San Luis Obispo; drove up 8 sheep, some chicken, two Maremma Sheepdogs and a beautiful girl in a Uhaul up there. Lovely place.

Have a save trip.

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

Thanks everyone, for your..... er..... suggestions (??). I appreciate the alternate route suggestions and will carefully consider them. We have about 30 minutes of driving until we have to make a decision about which route to take, so we will probably just respond to what our local traffic volume is. Taking an alternate route ensures the drive will be 5 hours (at least) instead of 4 (best case time), so I am hesitant.

But not to beat a dead horse here, but can any one venture a guess to the original question? Clearly at 5 PM on Wednesday the traffic will be terrible. But clearly at 4 AM on Thanksgiving day, the traffic will be fine. So does anyone have any idea when it switches from gridlock to free flow on Wednesday Night/Thursday Morning? Thanks.

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1968 220D, w115, /8, OM615, Automatic transmission.
My 1987 300TD wagon was sold and my 2003 W210 E320 wagon was totaled (sheds tear).

If you take my route you will be fine, I can't speak of the Redland area, but the only place where I would expect maybe some traffic would be around Pasadena.

I know for sure you will be in traffic if you take the 101 to the 134 around 4/5PM, it's a bottleneck that starts before the 405. At 4AM LA traffic is a breeze, in the last weeks I have exceeded 90mph several times around that time. Around 6:30/7AM traffic starts to build up and will come to a crushing halt around 8:30/9AM.

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

Take some refreshments - good music - and a happy attitude and have a great holiday no matter what the traffic does or looks like!

(I guess they'll all be off down the beach dude)

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Traffic starts to get bad at about 6:00 a.m. from the 101 past Camarillo, all the way through LA on the 101, the 134, and the 210. It will start to lighten up past Pasadena as traffic is headed the other way.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

This thread is like that "The Californians" segment on SNL.

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

Except it's shorter.

And we measure distance in time, everything is 20 minutes. What is sort of true if you don't take traffic into account.

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).